The invention relates to a food-heating appliance and more particularly to a food-heating appliance having a cooking unit insert with a plurality of cooking subchambers.
Conventional food-heating appliances have a heating unit and a cooking unit. The heating unit typically has a bottom heating area. Some units include a continuous sidewall upstanding therefrom to define a heating chamber. The sidewall is usually either circular or oval in cross-section. Such heating units have one or more electric heating elements mounted thereto that are adapted to supply heat to the cooking unit. One or more control switches, circuited to supply electricity, control the heating elements.
The cooking unit typically has a bottom with a continuous sidewall upstanding therefrom. The cooking unit has a flange-like lip extending from the upper side of the sidewall that is adapted to engage the upper surface of the heating unit sidewall when the cooking unit is placed therein. In some appliances, such as the Crock-Pot(copyright) slow cooker manufactured by The Rival Company, the cooking unit is made of ceramic and is adapted to work in conjunction with the heating unit to cook food products in a slow, uniform fashion.
The cooking of food products in the Crock-Pot(copyright) slow cooker is performed in a steady, even manner because the ceramic or xe2x80x9ccrockeryxe2x80x9d cooking unit conducts heat evenly within the cooking chamber. Furthermore, the ceramic sidewalls of the cooking unit conduct and hold heat for an extended period of time to level any fluctuations in temperature if the heating element in the heating unit cycles on and off. The cooking unit may be used as a heat-retaining serving container.
Such food-heating appliances, however, utilize cooking units with only a single heating chamber formed therein. This is a disadvantage when multiple food products are desired to be slow-cooked. In the past, if a consumer wished to slow-cook more than one food product, the consumer would have to purchase multiple food-heating appliances, which is undesirably costly to the consumer.
The invention includes a food-heating appliance including a heating unit defining a heating area. The heating area includes at least one heating element mounted to supply heat to the heating area and a control switch circuited to supply electricity to the heating element. A ceramic cooking unit is provided having a bottom and at least one sidewall that define a cooking chamber adapted to be at least partially received over the heating area. The cooking unit includes at least one medial wall to divide the cooking chamber into at least a first and second cooking subchamber. The heating element supplies heat to the cooking unit via the heating area to heat the first and second cooking subchambers.
In another aspect of the invention, the invention includes a food-heating appliance with a heating unit having a bottom and at least one sidewall upstanding therefrom, the bottom and sidewall defining a heating chamber and the sidewall defining an annular lip around the top of the chamber. The chamber includes at least one heating element mounted thereto and adapted to supply heat to the chamber, and a control switch circuited to supply electricity to the heating element. A cooking unit has a bottom and at least one sidewall upstanding therefrom, the bottom and sidewall defining a cooking chamber adapted to be at least partially received within the heating chamber and the sidewall defining an annular lip positionable over the annular lip of the heating unit. The cooking unit also has at least one medial wall upstanding from the bottom wall within the cooking chamber which defines a first and second cooking subchamber. The heating element supplies heat to the cooking unit via the heating chamber to heat the first and second cooking subchambers.
An advantage of the present invention is that two separate food items may be slow-cooked in separate first and second cooking subchambers within a single heating unit, thereby saving the expense of having to purchase multiple heating and cooking unit pairs.
According to an alternative embodiment to the present invention, the cooking chamber of the cooking unit has two medial walls defining three cooking subchambers therein.
These and other advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like referenced characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views.